Friday the 31st.
Ben has the best memories from our trip to Lucaya
Beach for my sister's wedding last Spring. He often looks at a framed
photo of Amy holding him in the Bahamas and asks when we can go to the beach.
He even fell asleep holding that photo two nights in a row recently. So I
know that he will be very excited to get his feet back in the sand.
Jackson on the other hand keeps saying grumpily "I don't see the point in going
to the beach when it's cold." Something tells me he'll change his
mind once we get there though.

Thursday the 30th.
What better way to end March than with kite flying photos. Jackson and I
spent time over the weekend flying his kite, first in the fields behind our
house and later in the fields in front of his great-grandmother's house in
Virginia. He's gotten pretty good at it. He talks about making a
nice easy landing as he lets the kite glide slowly down, then just as it touches
the ground, he says "Like that's going to happen!" and zips it back high into
the air. In a few weeks we'll be kite flying on the coast during his
kindergarten spring break.

It's finally getting warm again. We mowed the lawn for the first time last
night and this morning I was able to walk Jackson to school. Amy and Ben
will walk to Music Time at the Andy Griffith Playhouse later this morning.
Hopefully it's Spring for real this time.

Amy is on her sixth week of going to five am classes
at the gym five days a week. Ben usually gets up while she is gone and comes to our bedroom
to wake me up. This morning he and I were still in bed watching The
Wiggles when Amy got home. After I commented on my own morning breath, Ben
pointed at my mouth and said "YOU GOT A SKUNK IN DERE DADDY!"

Wednesday the 29th. Ben has only touched sweet potatoes three
times. Each time he threw up violently. Once it was just sweet
potato flavored rice cakes. Up until now, it's been the only thing we've
found him to be allergic too. But as it turned out, Ben wasn't sick yesterday morning, he
was having an allergic reaction to all the pumpkin bread he ate on Monday.
Poor kid.

Tuesday the 28th. Today I celebrate eight years of
marriage to my beautiful, caring, honest, sweet, and, to top it all
off, really hot soul-mate. Happy Anniversary Baby!

We actually got to do
our celebrating a couple of weeks ago, which
worked out well since today is the day little Ben has to be put to sleep for
his dental work. So keep your fingers crossed that all goes well.
We are a nervous wreck and have to be in Winston-Salem by 7:45am. And I
can't wait to see what Ben says when we tell him he can't have his "cuppa"
or breakfast this morning.

Update: Ben isn't going to the dentist today, he is
sick. He threw up when he woke up and has done so again twice.
Which just continues the streak of our kids getting sick at the absolute worst
possible moments. I feel really bad for Ben and hate that he is sick, plus
we are the type people that really stress out over missing appointments, because
you know they think you're lying when you call.
AND we've been up since four trying to get ready on time. . Arrrgghhhh.

Monday the 27th. In today's main photo I wonder if Ben
and the cow are both pondering the beauty of the daffodil bud or if they are
both curious about what it would taste like.

The fact that Ben looks in no way shape or form anything like
me, in my mind, gives me the freedom to say that I think he has got to be one of the
cutest damn things on the planet.

In other news, Jackson's martial arts class group photo made
the front page of our local paper's Sunday sports section.

Sunday the 26th.
I took Friday off from work to paddle a section of the Dan River that had been
on my "to do" list for some time. We are in the middle of a major drought,
so the water level was extremely low. It was also a cold day with snow and
rain in the forecast, although nothing fell until we were off the water.
Even with the low water and bad weather, my friend Jeff and I had a fantastic
time. The scenery was beautiful and there was a really long nice stretch
of rapids that I hadn't anticipated. I really, really had a good day spent
outside rather than in the office. I want to warn you, this video clip is
9MB, so only the interested with broadband want to click
here. You can also see more photos and a more complete trip
report here.

My mom had to go to the hospital yesterday with a kidney
stone, so we visited her in Virginia this morning. Luckily she is feeling
much better and hopefully won't ever have to go through that experience again.

Thursday the 23rd. I just wanted to post this cool photo from
tonight's Advanced Youth Karate Class. Jackson
was awarded Green belt status on Tuesday night, his fifth belt and
fourth promotion.

Lots of bragging tonight because we also had a progress
meeting with Jackson's kindergarten teacher this afternoon and nothing was said
that wasn't very positive. We are very proud of how much he has
learned this year and of how hard he has worked. I am amazed nightly at how
well he can read and his
writing is both intelligent and very creative. That's it,
now I've got to run out and buy some trail mix for tomorrow's kayaking trip in
the snow and rain.

Wednesday the 22nd. Jackson's favorite movie is the
Disney channel original, High School Musical. That's been fun
because it has him interested in basketball and we've been playing a lot lately.
He also likes the Disney channel shows Zack and Cody and Drake and
Josh. If you know those three shows then you know that all the main male
characters share the same shaggy hair cut. And that's the way Jackson
wants his hair, shaggy. So let's just say that last week's highlight,
or maybe I should say drama, was the huge embarrassing scene Jackson made at the
barber shop, the resulting punishments and the half-haircut Jackson has
sported for days. But it all worked out, everyone lived through it, and
tonight Amy took him to her hair stylist so that Jackson could describe the hair
style he wants and get his half-cut turned into a full-cut.

In other Jackson news, his tooth that changed color after
being knocked loose on the playground, turned white again. We were very
happy. Then over the weekend he ran into the back of his friend while
playing and bam... blood and the same tooth knocked loose. We are hoping
for the same recovery as last time, but now Jackson has discovered that he can
wiggle it, which is what he does because he really wants to start the whole
tooth fairy/missing tooth thing.

We also visited my
sister
tonight to wish her an early "Happy Birthday".

And I've got a few new photos from this past weekend's Dinner Club
posted
here. Today's photo is from our night at
Dora's Pirate Adventure.

Tuesday the 21st. One of Jackson's cousin's recently
went to a ring dance. When Jackson heard his date's name he started
singing "____ and ___ sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" over and over and over
while laughing. After the ninth or tenth verse he stopped and said "what
does K-I-S-S-I-N-G spell?" That made Amy and I start laughing and Jackson
laugh even more once we told him.

Sunday the 19th. Jackson went to his first USSJA
tournament yesterday in Wytheville, Virginia. We are so proud of him and
of all his fellow Mount Airy Martial Arts students. They all
competed so well and with so much heart. Amy and I couldn't believe how
emotional and dramatic it was. We were exhausted by the time we left, so I
can't imagine how tired the kids were.Read more and see all the photos...

Oh
man am I stinking it up big time on my NCAA tournament bracket. Amy went
to Opie's candy store and bought tons of gold coin chocolate candies so that a
leprecon can hide them in the yard while Jackson is at school and Ben naps. That should be fun.

Thursday the 16th. Here is what I have to say
about the Dora The Explorer: Dora's Pirate Adventure show we went to on
Tuesday...
America has a successful popular children's cartoon that features a person of color
in the leading role and what do you do when it's time to cast the live show?
Hire a white girl. Unbelievable. I can just hear the conversation
during casting. "Okay, well, we had five hundred actresses audition, did
any stick out for you?" "Yeah, I liked that white girl." "But, you
do know that Dora's creators describe her as a bilingual pan latina. Her
voice is done by someone of Peruvian descent. She's a source of pride to
Hispanic children everywhere as someone they can relate to. How could you
possibly not hire a Hispanic actress to play Dora?" "I don't know, I guess
I just really like that white girl."

Monday
the 13th. What a gorgeous weekend! While Amy worked on
Saturday, the boys and I started our day with a hike to the river behind our
house. Then, after lunch, I took Jackson to his Aunt Dee
and Uncle Martin's house for a much anticipated sleep-over and Ben to my parents
house so that Amy and I could leave town for a wonderful relaxing night away in
celebration of our upcoming eight year wedding anniversary. This weekend's
unseasonably warm weather actually reminded me a lot of the weekend we were
married in Petersburg, Virginia. The temperatures that weekend were in the high eighties
and low nineties. Saturday's trip was into the mountains to our north,
just far enough north that they didn't serve sweet tea, but not so far that you
couldn't still get
biscuits and gravy for breakfast. more photos
and story...

Friday the 10th. Today's photo is the Coiled Cobra
rapid at Joyce's Mill on the Dan River. I'll be
paddling through this spot in exactly two weeks, provided that Spring does what
it's supposed to do and rain a little. We've got fun plans for this
weekend too, so I had better hurry up and kick this cold I have to the curb.
And even more importantly, not give it to anyone else.

Thursday the 9th.
I'm going to abbreviate yesterday's events as much as possible, but I'll preface
it by saying that when I got home from work I found Amy sitting outside on the
side porch with a "Calgon take me away" expression on her face.
read more...

Today was much better
though. Ben spent a fun filled day with
his Aunt Dee,
who sent me the photos above. And Amy went with Jackson on a kindergarten field trip to
Sci-Works. Both boys were exhausted from
their exciting days and slept hard once they got home. Jackson even
slept through his karate class.

Our calendar here in Mayberry usually isn't that full, but this week is busy, busy, busy.
We usually have what we call a "nothing day" during the middle of the week (that
means Amy doesn't work and Jackson doesn't have karate), but this week they are
all "something days". Jackson went to karate class last night instead of
tonight because we have curriculum night at his school. And then, since
it's the only chance to do it this week, he is taking his mom to see
Aquamarine at the movies when that is over. Jackson's
current favorite movie is High School Musical. We taped it off
Disney Channel for him because he HAD to see it. So now he is all into
playing basketball, which is cool. He hasn't wanted to shoot hoops since
he was two. After watching it about a dozen times he said "You know, I
think I know why they call it High School Musical. It's because there's so
much music and singing in it." I told him he might be on to
something there.

Then later in the week we have a pediatric dentist appointment
for Ben, more karate, a birthday party, sleepovers for the kids, a field trip,
other miscellaneous appointments and a night out of town. I'm glad the
night out of town comes at the end of the week, we're really looking forward to
that, plus it's supposed to be eighty degrees this weekend. Next
week will be big with Dora The Explorer's Pirate Adventure and Jackson's first
karate tournament, but it doesn't look nearly as busy, so far....

And if you're curious about what's going on right this
instant... Amy is working out at Boot Camp (she hasn't missed a day in three
weeks) and I'm up at five only because I had a nose bleed and couldn't go back
to sleep. If I could have gone back to sleep, I would have, trust me.

Monday the
6th. Here are a few photos taken during a break from a busy weekend spent working on projects in Colonial Heights.

Thursday the 2nd. It's Spring cleaning time.
We had three eighty foot oak trees removed from our back yard this week (You
don't realize how high that is until you
see somebody up there). They should have been cut down eight years ago
when we moved in. All three leaned toward the house and one practically
leaned all the way over it.

Wednesday the 1st.
I posted
this clip
to share what Ben sounds like these days. He is saying one of
his little catch phrases that I think is cute...
That's a good idea (1.6MB). Jackson has turned the corner with
his virus, although he did hand the baton to Ben who ran a fever yesterday.
They both have some congestion, but aren't feeling too bad today.

This post is also to brag on Amy who has been waking up at four in the morning and
getting to the gym by five for advanced exercise classes like Boot Camp and Spin Class.
That's five in the morning... five days a week... and from what I hear, these
classes are HARD. I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty worthless at
five in the morning. As a matter a fact, at five in the morning, I'm sound
asleep. Of course, the only time Amy has free is when everyone else in the house is asleep. So I just want to say "Way to go Amy!
You're one tough cookie, one tough, really cute cookie." Of course it does make me feel like a sloth, so I
guess it's time I get back on my own
little exercise regimen (I've been saying that for months now).